CHARLOTTE, N.C. — David Turner is very fond of North Carolina State.
The Mississippi State defensive line coach grew up in Goldston, North Carolina, about 50 miles from Raleigh, North Carolina, the home of NC State. He grew up a Wolfpack fan. And he had two different stints on the Wolfpack coaching staff.
“My first memory is I met my wife there,” Turner said. “I went to games there, a bunch of games. A lot of great players I saw there, Ted Brown (running back 1975-78), Bucky Brothers (Don and Dave). I have a lot of memories and it’s home.”
Turner will now get to coach against the team he cheered for as a young kid.
The Bulldogs (8-4) play North Carolina State (7-5) 2:30 p.m. (ESPN) Wednesday in the Belk Bowl at Bank of America Stadium.
Turner isn’t the only Bulldog assistant coach with ties to NC State. Bulldog first-year defensive coordinator Manny Diaz spent six seasons from 2000-05 with the Wolfpack. He was a graduate assistant from 2000-01, linebackers coach from 2002-03 and safeties/special teams coach from 2004-05.
“I have a lot of great memories of being at NC State,” Diaz said. “My two youngest sons were born in Raleigh.
“(They have a) very loyal, passionate fanbase, which is reminiscent of what we have here,” he added. “It’s a place that identifies well with the people of the state of North Carolina. I think the same way we do here with the state of Mississippi.”
NC State safeties/co-special teams coordinator Clayton White played linebacker for the Wolfpack from 1998-00. Diaz got to spend one year with White while being a graduate assistant. NC State assistant head strength and conditioning coach Dantonio Burnette played linebacker for the Wolfpack from 1999-02. Diaz said he has already seen and spoken to both coaches and they have reminisced a little bit about their time together at NC State.
Diaz steadily refined his defensive style while in Raleigh and the Wolfpack had the No. 1 defense in the nation in 2004, yards per game wise.
This will be the first time Diaz has faced NC State.
“The first thing I thought about was just some of those guys that I knew there,” Diaz said. “It’s going to be hard playing them in Charlotte. When we played in the bowl game in Charlotte (2005), it was a very pro Wolfpack crowd. Their fans do a great job and make a lot of noise. You know it’s going to be a challenge when you go to North Carolina to play NC State.”
Turner, who played at Davidson College in nearby Davidson, was a graduate assistant at NC State from 1988-89 and coached the defensive tackles and linebackers for the Wolfpack from 1995-96.
Turner remembers seeing the Wolfpack beat No. 7 Penn State and Joe Paterno 12-7 in 1974, one of his fondest memories of the team he grew up pulling for.
“When you’re a kid and you have a chance to go to games like that, and then having a chance to coach there, it was a great feeling,” Turner said.
Both Turner and Diaz have fond memories of NC State, but, as Turner put it, there is no question where their allegiances lie for Wednesday’s game.
“My allegiance is with the Bulldogs,” Turner said. “But it will be fun to go home and play against those guys and be in Charlotte.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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